The southern fortress in Algiers was covered by the ferocious artillery of the Joint Fleet. About every two minutes, hundreds of shells fell on the fortress, causing the city wall where the fortress was located to tremble!

The General Fubo ironclad ship was even driven to the closest distance from the turret as possible, and fired along the coastline!

If you are not afraid of stranding, the ironclad ship can even shell the shell with its face!

The cannons on the Algiers' fortress cannot penetrate the armor of the iron armored ship. Often, even if the shells hit the iron shell of the iron armored ship, they only shocked the iron armored ship, leaving a small dent on the armored layer.

"Damn it, what kind of devil is that! I have calculated carefully that we had at least six shells hit it! But now it is still unscathed!" The pirate leader responsible for observation and command on the fort saw that the ironclad ship in the front of the joint fleet basically ignored the artillery and suppressed the artillery, and his scalp was numb.

Under the cover of the joint fleet's dense artillery, the Far West Expeditionary Force and Marine Corps soldiers rode shallow water gunboats and took advantage of the rising tide to attack the fort!

The loading of artillery requires cumbersome and complex operations. Proficient and unskilled artillery can make the firing speed of artillery different from that of the artillery, and the gap can even double. Even skilled artillery players will take some time to reload gunpowder and shells, which gives the opportunity to seize the landing force.

The closer the shallow water gunboat is to the sea, the higher the probability of being hit by a turret. A ship was hit by artillery and ran aground on the shallows. The soldiers above jumped into the water and advanced to the beach with muskets.

Both sides fought fiercely around the South Fort, and the sound of muskets came one after another on the beach.

The opportunity to seize the turret is only at the high tide. If the high tide is missed, they will be left on the beach and cannot be withdrawn.

There were constant muskets on the beach, and pirates and soldiers robbing the beach were killed from time to time!

"Our soldiers have not fought such fiercely for a long time. The war in the east has gradually subsided, and only the 12th Corps in the South China Sea has been fighting for a long time. The indigenous kingdoms they face are even less ferocious than the artillery of these pirates." Zheng Zhibao said to Sun Xu while using a telescope to observe the battle on the beach.

"For our officers and soldiers, this is a grinding, polishing the edges and corners of our officers and soldiers." Sun Xu was also observing the battle situation of the landing on the beach.

The pirates' artillery were used to attack shallow water gunboats, while the large warships of the joint fleet were not attacked.

In order to avoid hitting the soldiers on the beach, the warships of the United Fleet also slowed down the suppression of artillery on the turret.

Next, let’s see the two sides fighting on the beach.

On the deck of the Sea Monarch, Prince Rupert looked at the Far West Expeditionary Force and the Marines who were fighting for the fort, and said to the Earl of Strafford beside him: "Their soldiers have strong discipline and combat effectiveness. Even Swedish mercenaries may not be as good as them. Maybe they can successfully seize the South Fort so that we can continuously transport soldiers to land."

"No, it's too difficult to capture the South Fort. Our shallow water gunboats are too small to suppress the artillery on the turret. Moreover, the Barbary Pirates are the most combative troops in North Africa, with a large number of people, plundering ships from various countries in the Mediterranean. Now we have only more than 200 troops ashore, and the tide is so short..." Sir Pennington was not very optimistic about capturing the South Fort.

"Is the Barbary Pirates really that powerful?" Prince Rupert from the Holy Roman Empire only heard of the Barbary Pirates and had not really fought with them.

"They said they were pirates, but in fact they were an independent maritime kingdom. More than 20,000 pirates were blocked in Algiers. Our attack was a way out for them. Do you think they would fight to the death?" Sir Pennington explained, "Algiers, Moroccan pirates are much closer to the Spanish Empire than the Ottoman Empire. Why don't the Spanish want to provoke them? Because these pirates bought from various countries, snatched a large number of artillery and muskets, had their own ships, and many people were dead and were destined."

Sir Pennington's judgment was not very wrong. Algiers were originally regarded as an important stronghold by the pirates. After hundreds of years of hard work by pirate leaders throughout the ages, the pirates were in a state of preparation for war all year round. They were more well-trained than the militias temporarily recruited by many kingdoms, second only to the standing army.

After learning that the South Fort was attacked by the Joint Fleet, Muratpasha personally led a 500-man guard to support the South Fort. He even took out one-tenth of his property and hired a large number of pirates to defend the South Fort.

The number of pirates in the South Fort reached an astonishing 2,000 people, more than ten times the number of troops landing on the beach!

In order to plunder armed merchant ships, these pirates generally have their own muskets, and those with poor equipment also include bows and arrows. Some pirates even transported small artillery to strengthen the defense of the South Fort.

After Murat personally took over the war in the South Fort, the pirates' morale was high!

The pirate general Amur led the pirate galleys and sailing fleets in the harbor to support the South Fort from the sea, the pirate's Arabian spinnakers and the artillery on the Calais ships to shoot the shallow water gunboats that robbed the beach.

The pirate galleon fleet was constantly losing money due to shelling from the Joint Fleet, but it still wanted to eat the shallow water gunboat that robbed the beach.

Sun Xu and Zheng Zhibao did not expect that the Barbary pirates were so fierce that the beach-grabbing troops were unable to capture the fort, but instead were at risk of being eaten by the pirate fleet and the fort defenders.

"It would be great if the ironclad ship could run to the land with long legs. With the ironclad ship armor and artillery, you can easily capture the fort..." Zheng Zhibao couldn't help but sigh when he saw the deteriorating battle situation.

The importance of the navy is self-evident, but it cannot play a decisive role in the battlefield yet.

When encountering a fortress and fortress, infantry still have to attack forcibly.

This is also the confidence of the Barbary pirates in Algiers.

Even if the joint fleet has many large warships, they still have no choice but to use their pirates if they can't get on the shore.

Moreover, the joint fleet needs to consume a lot of supplies every day, and winter is coming to make a strong attack even more difficult.

As long as the joint fleet leaves, Murat is still the supreme Pasha here, and the pirates can still traverse the Mediterranean.

"The high tide period is about to pass, and the soldiers who attacked the fort are ordered to retreat, so that they cannot be trapped on the beach." Sun Xu said helplessly.

Sun Chuanting, who was commanding soldiers to fight at the South Fort, saw the signal of retreat from the joint fleet, he had to take the soldiers who had begun to fight with the pirates in the South Fort to retreat to the shallow water gunboat.

The soldiers who used the rear-mounted muskets to cross-cover the retreat in a small team, and even killed many pirates during the retreat.
Chapter completed!